Leading packaging firm Uflex on Thursday said it has developed personal protective equipment (PPE) coverall in collaboration with IIT-Delhi and Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences.

The PPE coverall comes with four-layered protection and anti-microbial coating and has been approved by DRDO for use by the front-line health workers fighting against COVID-19, Uflex said in a statement. The protective coverall is made from a combination of non-woven polypropylene (PP) fabric and further impregnated with anti-microbial PP coating through a special process to increase the breathability, it added. “Most of the PPE coverall available in the market are not breathable at all. The user sweats heavily due to perspiration and this causes a great deal of discomfort to them," Uflex Packaging Business Vice President N Siva Shankaran said.

Flex Protect has almost 30 per cent better breathability while also conforming to ISO 16603 (resistance to blood and body fluids) which is mandatory against infection causing virus not to enter the coverall through the fabric, he added. The PPE coverall developed by UFlex and IIT-Delhi has been tested well for being anti-microbial, the statement said.

On the development, Centre for Biomedical Engineering Head Professor Harpal Singh, IIT-Delhi, said the centre has worked very closely with Uflex Ltd on the development of breathable fabric to be used in flex protect coverall. "The response and reaction time in the development was fast and excellent and it is the endeavour of IIT to collaborate with industrial partners for research and development to strengthen the domestic industry capability for providing devices and products in times of national emergencies," he added.